About Me

I read, cook, make art and try to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be doing with my life. I chronicle it here. You can contact me at daphneannphillips(at)gmail(dot)com. If you'd like some design work, please contact me at www.daphnephillipsdesign.com

Monday, June 08, 2009

You know, I guess when you are working one full-time job and three part-time jobs, plus creative stuff and keeping up with your sweetie and house... a person can get kind of tired. I was tired on Saturday. I couldn't sleep in (petsitting duties) but we just sort of stayed close to home all day. I don't even remember what all happened. Not very much, I can tell you that.

Sunday was better. We had slept better so were able to get out and do a few things. Got Terri some much-needed jeans, looked at a sofa which we really loved... but eventually decided that a) it wasn't exactly right (although so close) and b) maybe right now is not the best time to figure out the whole 'bring-in-new-sofa-get-rid-of-semi-new-but-really-uncomfortable-sofa-while-having-out-of-town-guest-coming-soon' thing. I bought our current sofa at the college-kid futon store for $400 when we moved into the new place because I was desperate, exhausted, and needed a couch now. It's fine for what it is (cheap, relatively attractive college furniture) but it's really not ideal for someone who has to lay down much of the time. Also, the freaking cushions keep sliding off. Drives me crazy. So... someday in the semi-near future, we will buy a grown-up couch. Hopefully at one of these crazy recession sales we keep seeing. Also hopefully with delivery included, because I cannot spare the brain power necessary to figure out how to hire guys, the truck, etc., AND sell our old couch... all at the same time. Nope, can't do it. So, for now we are stuck with the make-do couch.

Today I realized how very tired I am. I felt pretty okay most of the day, but I really need the rest of the week to stay at home and do not much. Sadly, because work is CRAZY BUSY right now, that isn't going to happen. All my own projects will have to remain half-done until next weekend, when hopefully I'll get it together to complete them. I hate it when I get so tired that I'm half-assing everything. I wonder if it's better to not do them at all, than to just sort of get them partially done, straggling along, not really done correctly, etc. I guess it depends on the situation.

I'm not really tired, I guess. I mean, I am tired, but I'm not exhausted or anything. I'm just kind of burned out. I need a little break. Staying home in bed and reading magazines and maybe having Chinese food delivered sounds nice. That would do just fine.

However, for now I shop for the groceries... at the new Berkeley Bowl! I don't think I'll actually be shopping at the new location very often because the old one is much closer to our house, but it's awfully nice. If you are not in the Bay Area, here's a little rundown on the Berkeley Bowl: the best grocery store for produce, hands-down. The produce area is as large as many entire grocery stores. They have everything, at much better prices than regular grocery stores. And the rest of the store has everything else you'd need, with a nice happy hippie-granola vibe that makes me happy. What doesn't make me happy is the parking situation (the parking lot is infamous for the sheer madness of it), nor the incredibly narrow aisles. People routinely abandon carts and go off on foot to collect their produce, because you can't steer your cart in the crammed aisles. It's crazy. I gave up shopping there on the weekend because it just instantly put me in a bad mood. However, now that there are two stores, hopefully the over-crowding will be eased.

The new store, which only opened on June 4th, is gorgeous, with wide aisles, a better-organized produce section, and someone clearly put a lot of thought into the flow of everything. They also have a parking garage. It's kind of awesome. However, a bit shiny for me. I think I still prefer the grungy old one. Which works out well since it's only 10 minutes from my house, as opposed to 20 minutes (the new one).

(I just realized that here is proof of how tired I am... I just spent two big paragraphs talking about a grocery store.)

Anyway. Yes. Not exactly running on all cylinders. I feel okay, and I'm really not too tired, but my brain feels kind of numb, and I know I'm just much more on the edge of grumpiness than I'm comfortable with. As soon as Terri is off Valcyte (either 4 or 6 weeks, she's trying to decide), then I'm taking a few days off to celebrate. We're going to do a home-vacation soon too -- either when she gets off it, or a few weeks afterwards (apparently sometimes after you stop taking the Valcyte, you can feel EVEN STILL WORSE for a bit as your body gets used to, you know, not having toxins poured into it twice a day). Maybe stay a night or two somewhere, if we can. It's all a big unknown at this point.

But a lot of laying around, magazines, chocolate, and bubble baths will be in order, I can tell you that might right now.

what does it say about me that i enjoyed your two paragraphs about grocery stores?! grocery stores are my life and i was just complaining the other day about how there are no good ones near me. (such a whiny, white girl, first world problem, huh?)

btw:: i know i still owe you an email. its been weird here. i had a huge thing with my mom last week---eh, i'll just wait and email you. SOON. i promise.

Tammie: heh, I'm glad you liked the grocery babbling. I'm actually very picky about grocery stores. It's very snobby of me. They have to be really cheap with great produce. I'm a tough customer, what can I say?

Don't worry about the email -- write when you can! I figured that *Stuff* was happening.